Fill ‘er up (or don’t)

In April 1997, there was a “gas out” conducted nationwide in protest of gas prices. Because of that, gasoline prices dropped 30 cents a gallon overnight.

On April 15th 2011, all internet users are to not go to a gas station in protest of high gas prices. Gas is now over $3.99 per gallon in most places.

If all users did not go to the pump on the 15th, it would take $2,292,000,000.00 (that’s almost 3 BILLION) out of the oil companies pockets for just one day, so please do not go to the gas station on April 15th and let’s try to put a dent in the Middle Eastern oil industry for at least one day.

If you agree PLEASE send this to as many people as you possibly can!

There was a similar e-mail that went out in May 2007.

Well, golly gee, if I thought this was of any consequence – does anyone REMEMBER a 30 cent drop in gas prices 13 years ago? – then I could get excited about this.

Unfortunately, as this and several other articles point out, it’s bogus economics. If one filled up on the 14th, or waited until the 16th to do so, it would make no appreciable diffference to the marketplace.

Now if more people stopped buying gasoline ALTOGETHER, or in large measure, by using more public transportation, bicycles and walking, and not just for a day or two, THAT could make a huge impact over time by really dropping demand.

It cracks me up whenever I get that email (or similar ones) because I don’t own a car. Granted, I’ll rent on once or twice a year and borrow here and there, but I spend less than $200 in gas in the course of a year.

I’d really like to see a USE no gas day get off the ground. Instead of not buying it on a specific day, how about walking or biking to your destination? Buses consume gas, but considering how many people ride the bus for every gallon consumed, it still lessens consumption.

Not that a use no gas day initiative could ever succeed. Too many people think it’s “too hard” or inconvenient to go without their own personal transportation for even a day. Not to mention how our society encourages suburban and rural living combined with urban employment. How many people would be unable to get to work if they weren’t able to use their car?

There’s a deep cultural issue that needs to be addressed before any real changes to oil consumption can be made. The only way it’s currently being addressed, though, is with pushes for more dangerous drilling operations and news reports of how to find cheaper gas prices.

I find it quite ironic that the consumer is always the villain and always gets blamed for speculators, oil companies, automakers who refuse to innovate and ramp up existing technology and a government that has not been serious about an energy policy for 38 years. It’s very nice to talk pie in the sky about walking and bicycling everywhere and living in strybook cities where that can actually happen safely, but reality ain’t like that, folks. Give us alternatives, outlaw tading in oil futures by anyone except oil suppliers, force the manufacturers to make vehicles get 100 miles per gallon or run their engines on fuel derived from plant waste or manure, and vote out every single politician who is not on board with this way of thinking.

Mickey, with respect, look at the way that you’re looking for solutions:

“The consumer is always the villain and always gets blamed…”
“Give us alternatives”

A couple of questions:

(1) Who is this “who” which is supposed to “give you alternatives”?

(2) Recognition of the power of the individual consumer has, historically, significantly improved the lives of hundreds of millions of people (e.g. the sufficiency [home-spun] movement of Gandi and the boycotts of MLK).

Therefore, is the problem with using the demonstrably powerful economic force of the public:

A. “Desire” on behalf of the public?

B. Lack of self-control on behalf of the individual?

C. Lack of any coordination among the individuals that comprise the public to use these kinds of tools to get what they want?

All three. But get real. Changing an entire cultural mindset and taking on an entrenched corporate cabal with more power than any leader or group of leaders in all of human history requires a massive Hurculean effort on the level of what happened in Egypt. It could take 20 to 40 years and enormous bloodshed and death on the scale we have bot seen for a century. Imagine the Civil War and the Great Depression all rolled into one. I simply don’t see that working here. People are not going to abandon their suburban and rural dwelling in which they’ve tied up their life savings and move into cities and live….where? in the rusted out hulks of their old vehicles?…..overnight. The entire structure of society and the network of industries who support the current lifestyle must be changed because most people completely lack reasonable choice.